Lukasheko, Aliyev to discuss cooperation in Baku

MINSK, November 20, 2:00 /ITAR-TASS/. Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko begins a two-day visit to Baku on Wednesday to meet with President Ilkham Aliyev of Azerbaijan to discuss the development of cooperation in various fields, an official in the press service of the Belarus President told Itar-Tass.

As a result of the talks, the sides are expected to sign a number of bilateral documents on cooperation in various spheres, the offiicial said.

According to official data, trade turnover between the two countries increased six-fold within a period from 2006 to 2012 to run as a result of last year at $223.3 million. In the January-September period of this year, trade turnover amounted to $216 million, with Belarusian export growing 1.6 times over.

Nikolai Patskevich, the Ambassador of Belarus to Azerbaian, told journalists ahead of the visit that the two countries might considerably increase the scope of trade-and-economic cooperation in the coming years. "We expect good results from the visit. The delegation includes the heads of ministries and agencies that did a large amount of work for preparation and signing of a whole lot of documents," he said. In so doing, the Ambassador pointed out that decisions might be taken with regard to the development of trade-and-economic relations and and the broadening and step-up of co-production arrangements.

Belarusian tractors, trucks, municipal machinery, optical equipment, lamps, and lifts are assembled in Azerbaijan. The Ambassador believes that Belarusian technologies and machinery may be also in a wide demand in Azerbaijan's agriculture. The Amkodor Company, the major producer of machinery in Belarus, had won in a competition the right to deliver land-reclamation machinery to Azerbaian and supply 80 excavators there before the yearend.

Patskevich said a decision had been practically ready as of now to establish in Azerbajan a joint-venture organization that would engage in selling and promoting the machinery with an eye to establishing, in prospect, the manufacture of it" there.

At the end of October during a meeting with the media chiefs of CIS countries, Alexander Lukashenko stated that Belarus and Azerbaijan had no barred themes. "We shall conduct a dialogue when I arrive in Baku on all aspects ranging from technical military cooperation to power engineering matters," the President of Belarus said.